"This is definitely a fledgling company to watch; they certainly have the right idea: 'to uncover small moments of perfection in an otherwise imperfect world' and 'to reach a new generation of theatergoer… to help secure theater as a medium for expression for the next generation.' Sure can’t argue with that. "
"Triad Productions isn’t attempting to do theater for everyone. They want to stay pretty much out of the mainstream, producing works that are on the edge, sometimes off the wall, often decidedly off-color, and frequently violent. They’re trying to attract a young audience, to show them that theater isn’t fusty and musty; it’s hip, sexy, relevant, even shocking."~ Pat Launer SDNN.com


"As I climbed the stairs to my seat at the 10^th Avenue theatre, I saw the audience. I wanted to shout for joy. I was the oldest by a couple of generations. There were senior high school and university students. San Diego, there may be hope for theatre after all." ~ the Hitch San Diego Theatre Beat

Shopping and F***ing


It's like punched in the stomach with a play. - Adam Cochran

Great experience, off the wall and interesting commentary on today's society. - Simon on Goldstar.com

Critics


"Parker’s direction keeps the focus and action intense, but even at 90 intermissionless minutes, we get battle fatigue; we feel battered. Kudos to Triad for going out to and over the edge. Their idiosyncratic choices deserve an equally unconventional audience." - Pat Launer SDNN.com

"Hats off again to Triad. The company certainly isn't aiming for mainstream audiences, and it keeps giving us solid productions of work we probably wouldn't see otherwise."   
   -Don Braunael, sandiego.com

Triad's Shopping & Fucking gets a B for effort.
   - Martin Westlin SD Citybeat
 




The Lonesome West



Critics

"Director Adam [Parker’s] grueling attention to detail gives “Lonesome West” a healthy ham-fisted punch of Irish linguistic-psychotic comedy that molds the characters in authenticity. The appropriately accurately wrought dialects are difficult to understand, but this works. Hard listening is required to keep up with the play, which pulls the audience further into the work. The cottage’s carbuncled lime washed walls also serve the brother’s fist fights and chair throwing by placing their action in relief. Better yet, this set’s stone walls do not have the look of crudely carved Styrofoam. Kris Kerr’s beautifully distressed cottage design is realistic, even down to its stained sooting for the gritty realism required for the production’s plausibility.

Yep, get the buzz at Triad with your guard down and at Recession prices, too." -Thom Vegh http://espresso-refill.blogspot.com/

" Triad Productions has taken an excellent script and given their audiences a truthful interpretation. Go see the Connor  brothers [Ryan Ross and Bobby Schiefer] and the good Priest Welsh [Brendan Cavalier] and the lovely Girleen [Clair Kaplan]. You will have an excellent evening of theatre and a very good look at the Irish mystique...The Lonesome West... is authentic and excellence in theatre. While this is a credit to director Parker, it is also a credit to a very dedicated cast.

Director Adam Parker, a stickler for authenticity, found a short recording of the special speech patterns practiced by the residents, [and] demanded a total immersion into their lives, which meant that it took a few minutes for my ears to become accustomed to the authentic speech... Alas, being Irish we get words like feckin’, shiet, and beatch . . . all words heard in any pub in Ireland.  One grasps the accents quite quickly...They mastered a difficult speech pattern convincingly. I could easily close my eyes and believe I was in a bar in Galway.

The three males are all products of San Diego State’s excellent theatre department. Kaplan is currently at UCSD. All have an extensive background in theatre with extremely varied roles. There is a very special credit for fight coordinator, which belongs to Scott Andrew Amiotte. The brothers Connor, while somewhat civilized, exhibit both traits of brotherly competition and Irish temperament; thus combative. This gets extremely physical.

If you haven’t been to the 10^th Avenue Theatre or to a Triad production, you are missing an excellent venue and a very professional production company." ~Robert Hitchcock SDtheatrescene.com

"Part Cain and Abel... The Lonesome West is another of McDonagh’s dark, gruesome comedies (I wouldn’t want to have to clean up the mess after each performance). Under Adam Parker’s amusing direction, these two guys can’t even stop long enough to take their curtain calls, battling all the way, and dragging the priest and the sexy/aggressive Girleen down with them. Very funny stuff; a cynic’s delight....It’s just the kind of quirky, off-the-wall kind of piece Triad Productions craves. 

Triad artistic director Adam Parker puts the cast through their gleefully violent paces (with help from fight choreographer Scott Andrew Amiotte). The dark, snarky humor is excellently handled. Some productions of the play make more of an Odd Couple of the brothers; Valene, the collector, is often played as neat and prissy (his brother constantly calls him a “gay boy”). These two were pretty indistinguishable, and since they’re equally awful, I suppose that works, too. Ryan Ross is a sizzling firecracker as Coleman, with his hair-trigger anger and itchy trigger finger. Bobby Schiefer, making his Triad debut, is fresh from the Cygnet Theatre production of History Boys. As Valene, he seems controlled - until he’s totally out of control. All hell breaks loose when the two go at it. Vainly trying to intervene is the “maudlin and lonesome” priest (Brendan Cavalier, fine), and occasionally entering the fray is Girleen (excellent, beautiful Claire Kaplan, a second-year BFA student at UCSD), another of McDonagh’s tough gals who are kinda mushy inside. Kaplan has tremendous charm, and she brings radiance to her wonderful scene with the priest...

The aptly grungy set (Kris Kerr) features scabby stucco walls in a shabby, hut-like dwelling. The sound design (Matt Lescault-Wood) is delightfully evocative, featuring Irish drinking songs and all the dark humor you could ask for...

Mostly, it’s young folks behaving badly. The first production of the year was the San Diego premiere of Adam Rapp’s Red Light Winter. Next up is the local premiere of the barely printable Shopping and F***ing, by Mark Ravenhill, a black comedy of sexual violence. Triad deserves a large audience, for their talent as well as their chutzpah." - Pat Laurner Sdnn.com

“It’s as if Martin McDonagh read Sam Shepard’s True West and said, “Yeah?” McDonagh’s The Lonesome West pits brothers against each other in a world governed by survival of the meanest. Someone in Leenane adds to its reputation as “the murder capital” of Europe.

Triad Productions (whose admirable goal is “to reach a new generation of theatergoer”) offers a staging that makes up in energy what it sometimes lacks in theatrical savvy. The best scenes are steeplechases, choreographed by Scott Andrew Amiotte, in which the brothers rip, smash, and even blow up parts of Kris Kerr’s rustic set." - Jeff Smith San Diego Reader

Red Light Winter

"You made me think about stuff I didn't want to.  Thanks."  John T Smith

" I want to see this type of Theatre ALL the time." Juan Magallon

Critics

"Chaz Close physically embodies Matt’s shy unease well... Matt is the most fully drawn character; his anxieties, insecurities and poor conversational skills balanced with bouts of impassioned eloquence are meant to create the portrait of a sort of endearing doofus...Perhaps Tess McIntyre fares best in her role as Christina, an assured and kind yet self-defeating young woman who alternately masks her identity and bares her vulnerability (figuratively and literally)." ~Jennifer Chung Klam sandiego.com

"If you see this, you’ll be treated to an excellent performance ...It’s Schmitz you’ll be watching—he’s first-rate as the swaggering, frat-boy bozo, with his booming voice and eccentric, faux karate moves." ~Martin Jones Westlin San Diego CityBeat


"Under the direction of Triad’s co-founder/executive producer, Scott Andrew Amiotte, the tempo is aptly rapid and the self-aggrandizement is perfectly balanced with self-deprecation and uncertainty....Charles (Chaz) Close... has the perfect sad-sack, hangdog look for a depressive, and he’s thoroughly convincing as poor hapless, nerdy, neurotic Matt. Tess McIntyre ... brings just the right amount of sensuality and vulnerability to Christina (even her cigarette-smoking, of which there’s a lot in this play, is sexy). Davis is the trickiest character to capture, and Stephen Schmitz, ... effectively captures the unrestrained wit, humor, intelligence and take-no-prisoners command of a situation...BOTTOM LINE: BEST BET...dark and hip, and very well done. "~ Pat Launer SD Theatre Scene